Biography of 	Hon. John Milliken Parker, Bethel Church, MS., then Orleans Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by 	Mike Miller September 2000

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Hon. John Milliken Parker, governor of Louisiana from 1920 to 1924, has for many years been 
a man of distinction in his home city of New Orleans, and has been well known in national 
life and politics because of his effective participation in the progressive party and his 
nomination as candidate for vice-president on the progressive ticket in 1916.

Governor Parker was born at Bethel Church, Mississippi, March 16, 1863, son of John M. Parker
and Roberta (Buckner) Parker.  His father was born at Port Gibson, Mississippi, in 1837 and 
died in New Orleans in 1893.  A graduate of Princeton University in 1860, he married at Bethel 
Church Miss Roberta Buckner and for a number of years was a planter there.  He served as a 
confederate soldier during the war between the states and in 1871 removed to New Orleans, 
where he engaged in business as a cotton factor.  The name Parker has been prominent in Cotton 
circles in New Orleans for over half a century.  He was a democrat.  His widow is still living 
as New Orleans.  She was born in Mississippi in 1839.  Of their family of children Governor 
Parker is the oldest.  Judge J. Parker is Judge of the Civil District Court of New Orleans, 
Arthur D. is president of the Parker-Blake Co., wholesale druggists of New Orleans; Dr. 
William E. is a surgeon at Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Mrs. W. J. Montgomery, of New Orleans, 
is the widow of a prominent cotton factor of that city.

John M. Parker, the Governor, was reared in New Orleans from the age of eleven, and was 
educated in public schools.  Leaving high school at the age of seventeen, he had a general 
working experience in the Cotton business until 1884.  In that year he became associated 
with the wholesale grocery business, a member of the firm Parker-Haynes and Company, and 
was active therein for nine years.  In 1892 Mr. Parker was president of the New Orleans 
Board of Trade and in 1897-98 was president of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange.  For many 
years he has been president of the John M. Parker Company, cotton factors.  He has had some 
more or less active connection with the cotton industry since 1880.  From 1908 to 1911 he 
was president of the Southern Commercial Congress and was the first president of the 
Mississippi Valley Association.  During the World war he acted as Federal food administrator,
and in 1918 was appointed arbitrator in the metal workers' strike in New Orleans.

He took an active part in the progressive party movement in 1912 and in subsequent years, 
and in 1916 was nominated to the office of vice-president on the progressive ticket with 
Colonel Roosevelt.  However, the progressive party organization came to an end before the 
election of 1916.  In 1920 he was elected governor of Louisiana for the term of four years
ending in May, 1924.  Governor Parker is a democrat.  He served as a southern member of the 
Advisory Committee of the Armament Conference after the World war.  He is a Presbyterian, 
and has for thirty-s years been a member of the Masonic fraternity.  He belongs to the Boston
Club of New Orleans. the New Orleans Country Club, the Audubon Club of New Orleans.

January 11, 1888, he married Miss Cecile Airey, daughter of Colonel Thomas and Virginia 
(Carroll) Airey, now deceased.  Her father was a: cotton factor. Governor and Mrs. Parker 
have three children:  John M. Parker, Jr., vice president of the John M. Parker Company, 
cotton factors at New Orleans, enlisted in the regular army as a private, served in France 
more than a year, and returned home with the rank of lieutenant.  The second son, Thomas 
Airey, secretary and treasurer of the John M. Parker Company, enlisted as a private in the 
navy, served all through the war, being with the mine laying squadron in the North Sea, 
and returned with the rank of lieutenant.  The daughter, Miss Virginia, lives at home.

A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), pp. 4-5, by Henry E. Chambers.  
Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.